Gotta Get Next To You (7 page)

Andrea shifted a bit and raised one leg,
bending it at the knee, foot at rest on the chair. She looked so
different now that she was at ease. The softness of her came
through. Gone was the crisp, efficient, in-charge career woman. In
her place was a beautiful, relaxed temptress. Her shapely legs were
an expanse of smooth caramel. She stretched, her back arching, the
buttons on her blouse straining against the ripe fullness of her
breasts. Lee breathed in sharply and felt heaviness in his groin.
He took a hasty step back away from the tantalizing sight. Lust
pounded through his body. It took all his self-control to fight off
the arousal that made his jeans too tight. Several minutes passed
before he could collect himself. He rubbed a hand over his face and
entered the room.

“Excuse me,” Lee said, stopping short.

Andrea jumped up and dropped the folder she
held in the process. “Good God!” she yelled.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Lee held up both
palms to reassure her.

“You scared the crap out of me! What are you
still doing here?” Andrea put a hand over her heart.

“I was working late, like you. I looked
around and everyone was gone. Or so I thought.”

Lee walked farther into the office. The fear
in her pretty eyes faded and was replaced with growing
suspicion.

“Working late on what? You don’t have any
dead-lines.” Andrea bent down and picked up the report.

“I only meant to work for fifteen more
minutes. An hour had passed before I realized it.”

“Oh.” Andrea seemed uneasy about being alone
with him.

Lee pressed his lips together tightly. “I
don’t bite.”

Why had he said that? He looked at her and
knew the answer. She stood still in her stocking feet. The top
three buttons of her blouse were undone. He could see the outline
of a lacy bra beneath the white cotton. She was an enchanting blend
of bewilderment and sensuality. The desire to taste her bit into
him with the ferocity of a pit bull. Then Andrea’s expression
hardened as she smoothed and buttoned her blouse.

“I was just leaving. You should, too.” She
put on her shoes and crossed to her desk as she spoke.

“I’ll walk out with you. It’s not a good idea
for you to be here alone.” Lee leaned against the doorframe while
she straightened her desk.

“It’s still light outside and the exterior
doors are locked.” Andrea used her fingers to brush her thick hair.
She glanced at Lee and stopped.

“Yeah, but then you’ve gotta walk behind the
building to your car. Only one part of the parking lot is visible
from the street.”

“I don’t take stupid chances. There’s a
security patrol and I never stay later than six.” She gathered up
her purse and a stack of files. “But thanks for your concern.” Her
voice dripped icicles.

Lee’s eyes narrowed. The woman was being
argumentative for the sake of it. Andrea Noble was stubborn,
frigid, and high-handed. The warm, sultry vixen he thought he’d
seen moments ago did not exist. To hell with her.

“Forget I said anything,” Lee tossed
back.

He spun around and strode down the hall.
Andrea came right behind him. Part of him wanted to jump in his
Acura Integra and peel off. Yet despite the anger stretching his
last nerve, Lee waited at the back door while she set the
alarm.

It was hot even at this time of day. Late
afternoon sunshine beat down on the cement surface. Lee was boiling
for a very different reason.

“Good-bye, Miss Noble.”

“Good-bye,” Andrea said, her tone composed.
“I’ll see you in the morning.”

Lee ground his teeth. The woman was mocking
him, and he deserved it. He had no business letting her get under
his skin this way.

“Get a grip, man,” he muttered to himself as
he drove down the highway. He switched the radio on and turned to a
hip-hop station. Turning up the volume, Lee tried to drown out
thoughts of full, luscious lips and soft, brown thighs.

It was four-thirty and Lee noticed that
Andrea's car was not parked in the staff spaces. She was at another
meeting at Public Health headquarters in New Orleans. For the past
few days, Lee had worked in the afternoons so Andrea and Katy could
use the computers. With three of their programs now operating, they
needed to access archived records.

Lee sat down at the computer and turned it
on. Up until now his work had been pretty routine. He’d spent most
of his time scanning records from years back when the clinic had
been virtually a one-room shack. Now he was getting to the current
records, which would tell him more about the clinic operation and
any attempts to hide shady activity. First he needed to start out
with a good basic idea of how the clinic was supposed to run. To do
that he had to pour through state and federal guidelines. This
simple job was turning into a tangle of complications. He’d wanted
to be in and out fast. That was the way he handled most cases.
Still, it was possible. He just had to put in extra hours, work
late. It was probably only a matter of tracking down poor record
keeping, bad organization, and maybe some petty pilfering of
supplies. So far he’d not come up with more.

Lee pulled up a report on funding. The budget
was a maze of money coming from the state, the parish, and the
federal governments. No way could the money be misused. Too many
eyes were watching and dozens of forms had to be completed to track
every penny. Then he noticed something. A section on professional
contracts listed names he’d not come across before, with
substantial checks being issued quarterly. He printed out the page
so his partner, Vince, could run a background check. During a quick
run through the rest of the document, nothing caught his eye, so he
moved on. Only a small part of the pharmacy records had been
entered.

Lee stared at a stack of invoices from
pharmaceutical companies and drug administration records. If anyone
was fiddling with the drug supply, it was Denny. Lee did not trust
that wide smile as much as Andrea did, he thought sourly. Denny was
sure of himself. Or did Lee dislike the young man simply because he
could make Andrea smile? The thought of this possibility poked at
him in the most bothersome way.

“I’m back, Katy. I see you’ve been holding
this place together,” Andrea called out down the hall.

Damn it, he’d hoped she wouldn’t be here. Her
presence was a distraction. Lee didn’t want to think too deeply
about why. Immediately his mind conjured images of softly swaying
hips and caramel brown legs, smooth thighs moving in a sweet
harmony of motion. Focus, damn it!

After thirty minutes, Lee got a sense of
minor discrepancies that he definitely wanted to research. These
small blips might not be noticed by a less careful or suspicious
examination.

“Hi, Shandra.” Andrea walked down the hall,
talking to a young mother. “How is little Kendrick doing today?
He’s getting so big. Come here, sweet boy,” Andrea said right
outside the door.

Lee could imagine her working wonders to
soothe an irritable toddler. He’d watched her with patients young
and old. Her caring and dedication to making a difference in their
lives seemed quite genuine. There was no doubt that the cool,
distant nurse was not the only side of her. Her eyes lit up with
true compassion for those most in need. It would be a shame to make
the clinic look bad. Andrea had put a lot of work into the place;
at least that was his preliminary impression so far.

“Get back on track,” Lee muttered to himself
in a firm voice.

He set up a special pass code that would
allow him to access data only available to Andrea. Then he
configured a connection to the mainframe that linked the clinic
system to state records. There was a possibility that deliberate
wrongdoing might extend beyond the clinic. This way Lee would get
more information to help in his investigation. It was a painstaking
process and required all of his concentration. Lee became lost in
the minute detail of learning how to enter the right codes. He
would have to set up a temporary password for himself. Except that
it would not be temporary. Then he could enter the system at will.
As his fingers moved, his mind ran through the ways he would invent
reasons to work late. He thought of several means, such as
proposing that reports be submitted electronically. They also
needed a tape backup system in case the computers crashed.

Lee was so engrossed, an hour passed as if by
some magic twist of time. He decided to take a break from staring
at the computer monitor. Lee flexed his hands and arms. Then he
heard two voices, one deep and the other instantly
recognizable.

“Cut it out,” Andrea snapped. “This is a
clinic, not a singles bar!”

“Aw, c’mon. I’m just trying to make up with
ya for the other day,” the man said in a wheedling tone.

***

Andrea frowned at the grinning man when she
recognized him. He’d been one of the thugs who had accosted her the
first day she visited the clinic. She wondered how he’d gotten in.
Without thinking, she’d walked right into the last examination room
and pulled the door shut behind her. Her heart thumped. The rest of
the staff was up front.

“You must have better things to do with your
time,” Andrea said, trying to sound as though she were calm.

“Looka here, give me a physical,” Bo said.
“You s’posed to be takin’ care of people, ain’t ya?”

“If you leave now, we won’t have any
trouble,” Andrea said.

“Ain’t gotta be no trouble. I wanna be
friendly with you.”

Andrea took a deep breath. “I know we started
off on the wrong foot, but—”

“We had our first fuss and now we gonna make
up? I like that!” Bo let out a deep chuckle.

“Okay, you’ve had your fun for the day. Now,
we’ve got people waiting. Please leave,” Andrea said. She still did
not raise her voice.

“We haven’t finished talking, babe.” Bo took
a step closer to her. “We got interrupted last time.”

“What is your problem? I don’t have time for
games.” Andrea faced him without a hint of fear this time.

“I’ve got an appointment,” Bo said. He
pointed to her clipboard. “Darrel Bowman. Check it out.”

She glanced down at the list. Sure enough,
his name was there. “We’ll reschedule you to see the doctor.”
Andrea turned to walk away and Bo grabbed her arm.

“Okay, I was rude the last time. I really
wanted to, you know, apologize. Show you I’m not all bad.”

“I’m so touched,” Andrea said in clipped
tone. “Now, let go of me.”

He released his grip. “I mean it. You helped
my grandmamma out when she had that bad cough last week.”

“What’s her name?” Andrea was still quite
suspicious.

“Miz Lucy Whitefield. She’s my mama’s mama,”
Bo said.

“Miss Lucy is your grandmother?” Andrea
exclaimed.

“Lives out on Frenchtown Lane,” Bo added.

Andrea remembered the feisty old woman and
her daughter. Miss Lucy admitted freely to having lived a wild life
in her younger days. She was seventy years old and only health
problems had slowed her down. Stella was her fifty-year-old
daughter, and still drinking heavily. Andrea had been able to tell
by looking at her skin and eyes. They had talked about their
children and grandchildren being in trouble all the time. Here
stood six feet of living proof.

Bo nodded. “That other bi—I mean that other
nurse in charge of the clinic before you didn’t even try.” Bo held
out his hand.

“Thanks. But I’m doing my job.”

“Maybe you’ll let me treat you to dinner.”
Bo’s eyes glittered now with something other than gratitude.

“Don’t mess up a good thing. We were just on
the way to getting along.”

“Which is exactly what I’m talkin’ ’bout,” Bo
said. He grabbed her hand and massaged her palm in smooth circles
with his thumb. “We could get along even better.”

Andrea jerked her hand back. “You’re
obviously in excellent health, so leave.”

“Nah, I wanna stay with you.”

Before Andrea could react, he’d backed her
against the wall. He pressed his lean body into hers, forcing her
to feel the hardness of his arousal.

“Come on, I can satisfy you in ways you
wouldn’t believe,” Bo said in a low, husky voice.

“Get away from me,” Andrea gasped. She
brought her hands up against his chest when Bo leaned in to kiss
her.

“Give me a chance and you won’t be sorry,” he
panted.

“What the hell?” she heard Jamal growl.

In two giant steps he crossed to Bo and
slapped a large hand on the man’s shoulder. He dug his fingers into
a soft, fleshy spot between Bo’s neck and collarbone. Bo’s leering
grin melted into a grimace of pain, and suddenly he let go of
Andrea.

“I don’t think this is part of the exam, is
it?” Jamal tightened his grip.

“N-no,” the man grunted and gasped in
response. “I was just... we ...”

Jamal grimaced in fury. “I know what you were
doing. This is a medical clinic, not a strip club. No groping, no
suggestive comments. Got it?”

Bo gasped and wheezed. “You gonna break my
bone, man. Let go.”

“You wanted medical attention, didn’t you?”
Jamal’s voice was calm, cold. “How many times we gotta go through
this? Leave the lady alone.”

“Awright, awright,” the man pleaded, closing
his eyes against the pain. “Lemme go and I’ll leave!”

Andrea could not take her eyes away from
Jamal. There was control in every inch of his muscular frame. She
was sure he could really harm the man if he wanted to. But somehow
she did not think he would, now that Bo was obviously subdued. With
one hand he’d almost brought the huge man to his knees. Still his
voice remained level.

Jamal loosened his grip gradually, and Bo let
out a long, slow breath of relief. Jamal took his hand away but
stood back with a wide-legged stance, ready for action.